Endocrine Abstracts

We report a case of Cushing’s disease associated to nephrotic syndrome. A 21-year old female was admitted to Cittadella-Hospital due to recent occurrence of weight gain, acne, hirsutism, amenorrhea and mild hypertension. Physical examination revealed truncal obesity, moon face, buffalo hump and a bilateral ankle edema. Suspected hypercortisolism was confirmed by elevated 24 h urinary cortisol (385 μg/24 h, normal range 32–250 μg/24 h) and failure to suppres...

Vitamin D receptor (VDR) and its ligand 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25OHD3) play, in general, an inhibitory role on the growth of normal and malignant cells. However, the mechanisms for this anti-proliferative action remain not completely understood. Recently, a 1,25OHD3-mediated effect on hormone production and steroidogenic genes has been reported in the human steroid-secreting adrenocortical cancer cell line NCI-H295R (Lundqvist J et al. 2010). The aim of this study ...

Adrenocortical Cancer (ACC) is characterized by an increased production of insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) and by estrogen receptor (ER) α up-regulation. Aim of this study was to define IGF2 and estrogen signaling interactions in ACC, in order to give new indications for a better therapy. To this aim we used H295R cells and human ACC tissues which display common features: IGF2 activation of downstream effector pathways and over-expression of estrogen-related genes inc...

There is evidence for a strong association between Cushing’s syndrome, characterized by a cluster of systemic complications, and increased cardiovascular risk. To our knowledge, coronary circulatory function has not been explored in Cushing’s syndrome. The aim of the study was to evaluate coronary flow reserve (CFR), an index of coronary microvascular function, in patients with Cushing’s syndrome. Thirteen newly diagnosed patients with Cushing’s syndrome (1...